Health and homely fare make life
enjoyable. Subject to the incidents and interruptions of every day,
which follow humanity, it seems to them a continual picnic.
But how different was the fate of the worn-out Selkirk Colonists. The
memory of a wretched sea voyage, of a long and dreary winter at Nelson
Encampment, and of a fifty-five days' journey of constant hardship along
the fur traders' route were impressed upon their minds. The thought of
fierce rivers and the dangers of portage and cascade still haunted them,
and now everything on the banks of Red River was strange. On their
arrival the flowers were blooming, but they were prairie flowers, and
unknown to them. The small Colony houses which they were to occupy would
be uncomfortable. The very sun in the sky seemed alien to them, for the
Highland drizzle was seen no more. The days were bright, the weather
warm, the nights cool, and there was an occasional August thunderstorm,
or hailstorm which alarmed them. The traders, the Indians, the
half-breed trappers, and runners were all new to them. Their Gaelic
language, which they claimed as that of Eden, was of little value to
them except where an occasional company-servant chanced to be a
countryman of their own.
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